


Attitude Adjustment

by Brb-Rope (yetiamwell)



Category: Ben 10 Series
Genre: Ben 10: Alien Force, Gen, Introspection, M/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-15
Updated: 2010-07-15
Packaged: 2017-10-24 17:02:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/265827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yetiamwell/pseuds/Brb-Rope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ben doesn’t have any trouble making friends. It’s keeping them that’s the hard part.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Attitude Adjustment

**Author's Note:**

> Idea spawned from a few stumbled upon minutes of ‘Trade-Off’, watching Echo-Echo grope Kevin in the car. Everything just kind of went from there.

Ben doesn’t have any troubles making friends. It’s something that’s always come easily to him.

It’s keeping them that the hard part.

When Ben was ten, he went on a cross-country trip with his Grandfather and cousin Gwen that changed his life. It seems overly dramatic, even in his own head, to say that the trip changed his life forever, but it really did.

It was that trip that he gained the Omnitrix, and the ability to change into ten different alien types.

He made lots of friends along the way, most of whom he never heard from again. But there was one he did hear from again, one that when he first met them Ben _knew_ he wanted to spend the rest of his life with them, with all the joy and possession an immature ten year old boy can have.

Kevin was everything Ben wanted to be. Fun, bad-ass, assured, independent, able to take care of himself.

And absolutely freaking bat-shit insane.

… Okay, Maybe not that last part.

His joy quickly turned to sorrow, then horror. Kevin tried to frame him, then lost control of his powers, then hunted him down with the single minded intensity of a predator after its prey.

Even when they had to team up to survive in Slix Vigma’s gladiator arena, Kevin never lost a chance to try to kill Ben… Or help someone else do it.

Such as Vilgax.

Ben wasn’t sure what he felt when Kevin was locked away in the Null Void with Vilgax. He was sadden, but relieved at the same time. On the bright side, no more Kevin.

On the down side, no more Kevin.

Then end of summer came and he gave up the Omnitrix, sealed it away. He could feel it, later in the summer, how it became more than just a tool, it started to become a part of him, like a limb, like breathing, or his heartbeat.

Five years passed, and suddenly he was using the Omnitrix again. And within a couple of hours of putting the Omnitrix back on, feeling mostly whole again, Kevin was there too.

A different Kevin. A mature Kevin, with shoulders almost as broad as Ben was tall and built like _whoa_.

A Kevin that wasn’t trying to rabidly kill him.

And suddenly Ben realised exactly what his ten year old self hadn’t been ready for when he’d first met Kevin.

It scared Ben a little. He’d had nightmares for years of Kevin returning, trying to kill him in his sleep. And now he had had dreams of Kevin returning, trying to get into his pants.

He wasn’t used to having to try control his reactions around people. He couldn’t grin and bounce with delight, but he couldn’t send Kevin away either, so he took solace in trying to distance himself away from Kevin.

It didn’t work. Every time he thought he could fall into the distrust that had built up when they were younger, Kevin would do something like risk his life, his freedom or his safety to save Ben or Gwen.

Worse yet, they spent time together, driving around in Kevin’s sweet car, eating at Mr. Smoothies, fighting aliens. Saving each other’s lives and being saved in return. Watching Kevin flirt with them and trying to remember why he needed to keep his distance as Gwen flirted back, even as she turned Kevin down.

It still hurt, watching them. He tried to distract himself with Julie, which wasn’t fair to her or him. But Julie was a good friend, and they both knew that theirs was not a forever type of relationship. Their dating made life easier for both of them at school, and an excellent cover for their alien activities, Julie playing with Ship and Ben fighting with aliens.

And then life took a serious turn for the worse after Gwen didn’t turn Kevin down.

And then Ben accidentally turned Kevin into a monster. He didn’t think Kevin looked like a monster, neither did Gwen, but Kevin definitely didn’t look human anymore. And those shape shifting abilities? Ben could think of a few uses for that.

But every time he looked at Kevin, he remembered Kevin 11, trying to kill him and knowing that this time, it was Ben’s fault. He couldn’t dismiss the blame this time. He tried to make it up to Kevin, inviting him to his house to bond over Sumo Slammers, which Kevin found boring.

… Ben had sulked a little over that, taking comfort in his favourite show as he wondered what Kevin’s reaction would be to the fan fiction of Ishiyama and Kanko together in Sumo Slammers: Hero Generation. Still, it was better than the fiction out there about Ishiyama and his female cousin in Sumo Slammers Classic.

Ben learned a lot about sex with other guys from reading fanfics. Most of which he would have love to shared with Kevin, to apply theoretical knowledge to the practical.

But Kevin’s main focus was Gwen. He didn’t even notice it when Ben copped a couple of gropes as Echo-Echo when they went to rescue her from Darkstar.

Then he finally did turn Kevin back, but only by accident. By destroying the Omnitrix to keep Vilgax from getting it, Kevin was finally able to return back to his human form. And then kissed Gwen in celebration, while Ben had to watch.

The Ultimatrix paled as compensation. It didn’t feel right, didn’t fit him as comfortably as the Omnitrix had. It felt like replacing a real limb with a prosthetic one. Sure it worked, and he could go ‘Ultimate’, but it’s not quite the same.

And things just kept getting worse. His secret came out, proof of aliens on Earth. It ran both hot and cold, people either going nuts fawning over him or trying to arrest him and throw him in jail. Either was uncomfortable, but he tried to deal with it as best as he could while trying to save the Earth.

It didn’t help that after six months with Gwen, Kevin was little better than her lapdog. True, he gave Ben a sweet ride of his own, but that just gave Ben fewer excuses to spend time with Kevin. And then it was only with Gwen’s permission, like she owned Kevin or something.

It was hard to stay cheerful when the guy you’d loved in one form or another for over six years was dating your female cousin.

Which made it darkly funny when Gwen started gripeing about Ben’s recent negative attitude.

… Yeah.

It’s not making friends Ben has a problem with.

It’s keeping them.

-fin-


End file.
